University of Hawaii Medical School Suspends Body Donation Program
The program director cited a shortage in international doctors flying in for surgical training, a decline that began during the coronavirus pandemic.
Beginning July 11, the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine is temporarily halting a program that allows people to donate their bodies after death for anatomical studies.
While Covid-19 caused a decline in international doctors, such as from Japan and South Korea, flying to Hawaii for surgical training, the number of bodies donated to the program remained steady. Fewer participants in surgical training courses has tremendously slowed the Willed Body Program system down, according to program director Steven Labrash.
鈥淲e have the same number of people who are becoming donors,鈥 Labrash said. 鈥淭he only thing that鈥檚 changed is the number of courses that we鈥檙e teaching.鈥
More than 3,000 people in the state have registered to be donors. However, the program has run out of space to store the corpses, which the school calls 鈥渟ilent teachers,” according to Labrash.
The program鈥檚 freezer can accommodate around 100 donors at a time.
鈥淲e have more requests than we can make room for,鈥 Labrash said.
The medical school will still offer the courses already on the calendar and utilize some of the bodies while making space for new individuals to join the program. 鈥淢y gut feeling is probably December or January before we open up again,鈥 Labrash said.
